The “Plunge Protection Team” is the colloquial name for the Working Group on Financial Markets (WGFM). The Working Group was established by the executive order of President Reagan in 1988, in the aftermath of the stock market plunge of October, 1987.

The group reports to the President, and the official members of the group include the Secretary of the Treasury, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, the chairman of the SEC, and the chairman of the CFTC. In other words, the group members are the four most powerful financial officials in the United States. In practice, the committee can be composed of senior aides and officials that have been designated by those top officials.

A few follow up comments about the still rather remarkable announcement by the Department of Justice concerning the guilty plea by the former JPMorgan trader for spoofing in precious metals. Contained in the announcement was the statement that the guilty plea was accepted and sealed on Oct 9, nearly a month before it was unsealed on Nov 6. With a rather short sentencing date approaching on Dec 19, and the time it took to unseal the plea, it may be assumed that the trader has already fully cooperated in the hopes of reducing his jail time, said to approach 30 years with no cooperation.

When two opponents are locked in a quite evenly balanced bitter and struggle, the balance tends to sway first one way and then the other as either side manages to find and exploit an opportunity until the other counters it then pulls out all stops to regain any lost ground. Typically there is no clear victor and the result looks like a stalemate. Sometime, though, one side receives reinforcements to suddenly change a pending stalemate into victory. Wellington experienced that at the Waterloo. Wall Street can tell a similar tale.

Picture a scene in one of those action moves. Two guys are fighting for control over the steering wheel. The car is going 75mph, the road is narrow, and there is a drop over a cliff on one side. And there are lots of sharp curves.

Central Planning

This is a pretty good picture of the action at our central banks. Desperate men are fighting for who gets control of the monetary steering wheel, and for which rules to use to determine when to turn left and when to turn right. One side wants central planning with discretion and the other wants central planning with rules. Among the latter, a debate now rages whether to use inflation, GDP, or another measure.

“secret or dishonest activity or maneuvering.” as in “widespread financial shenanigans had ruined the fortunes of many”

“silly or high-spirited behavior; mischief.”

To start off, I find it astounding that of all the ways that dictionaries might cite the usage of the word “shenanigans”, they elected to discuss it in its context to the financial industry and how shenanigans have “ruined the fortunes of many”. To wit, as we move into the month of May, we are entering the six-month period during which stock prices have historically faltered, setting up the old saw that one should “sell in May and go away”.